A carnival game at Breslau Fire Hall’s festival on Saturday invites players to fish for sharks to win a prize. The games and inflatable castles came from PA Party Rentals.
Kevin Carroll | Times Leader
Organizer uses Hanover Twp. event to see if more are possible
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HANOVER TWP. — Nothing beats a good old-fashioned carnival, but when the proceeds go to a worthy cause, it’s like icing on the cake.
The Breslau Fire Hall played host to a mini-festival held by PA Party Rentals on Saturday afternoon. Social distancing was enforced and attendees were encouraged to wear masks in accordance with COVID-19 mitigation efforts.
“Usually I’d have done around 30 of these by now,” said Larry Barnes, the owner of PA Party Rental. “This one’s kind of like an experiment, to see if we could make it work.”
The proceeds from the carnival, which was free to attend but included a food truck and numerous games, will go to the Altered Beast Wrestling Academy.
The academy provides free wrestling and jiu-jitsu lessons for the children of the area, and holds tournaments throughout the year, including one happening at the same time as Saturday’s festival.
Altered Beast also happens to share a building on Old River Road with Barnes and PA Party Rentals.
“We’re like partners,” Barnes said.
The festival had all of the classic favorites: snow cones, a bounce house, an obstacle course, and plenty of various carnival games for the children to play in an attempt to win a prize.
It wasn’t a large-scale event, like Barnes has been used to doing in the past. Some of his games and bounce castles have been seen at fairs as large as the Tomato Festival held yearly in Pittston. With the COVID-19 pandemic still in full swing, Barnes has had to scale it back in order to be compliant with the rules.
“We had to cap this one at 250 people, which shouldn’t be a problem,” Barnes said. “But plenty of people that had organized festivals had to cancel because of the pandemic.”
Still, even with a smaller setup and crowd, Breslau’s carnival still brought plenty of smiles to the faces of the children seen running around through the bounce castle or throwing Wiffle Balls.
“The kids love it,” Barnes said. “They always have a blast.”